So why was a police officer using a loaded gun at a citizen's workshop?

Will he face a lawsuit or even charges?

The NBC2 Investigators asked other law enforcement agencies if they use real guns at their Citizens Police Academies.

Det. Sgt. Dana Coston with the Cape Coral Police Department said no, they do not use real guns, adding, "The Citizens Police Academy used to include a 'range day' where participants were taught basic firearms safety in the classroom and then taken to the gun range to actually shoot under the direct supervision of a department firearms instructor. For this block of instruction, real firearms were used. However, in the last couple of years, as range time has been harder to come by with local ranges having less availability, this was taken out of the curriculum."

Melinda Kellam with the FMPD Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association, said they do not use real guns either. She has seen instructors show real guns to students, but students do not use them. She said they only use gun simulators for their role-play scenarios.

Sgt. Douglas Dever with the Collier County Sheriff's Office said they do not use real guns unless they are taking students to a gun range.

"There are certain instances where we, under a controlled environment, will allow them to shoot a rifle at our shooting range," Dever said. "In that case, we will have one range officer per one student, and it will be one-on-one with a long rifle, which is much easier to control."

When they are practicing scenarios and roleplay, Dever said they only use a simulated non-lethal firearm.

"This is a Glock 17T. It fires a simulated round only. It will only fire a blank, or it will fire a soap marking cartridge. It will not fire live ammunition. We do not have live ammunition or live weapons anywhere near the building or room, where we have the scenarios or role players involved," Dever said.

How did a real gun with live ammunition end up at the Punta Gorda event?

"I think calling it an accident is an over-simplification," said Fort Myers criminal attorney Peter Dennis. "Somebody overlooked something. There was a mistake made along the way, clearly, and when a mistake happens, that's not entirely an accident, we generally say that could be negligence."

Dennis expects we will see both state and federal claims against the agency.

"Certainly, the police department is going to have to show that they had all the procedures in place to avoid something like this from happening and that they were enforcing all of those procedures, and had taken every precaution to make sure this didn't happen. The same thing will go for the officer. And if for some reason, he did not follow one procedure or another, one could easily see how both the officer and the department will have some liability in this," Dennis said.

We questioned Florida Police Chiefs Association and Florida Police Benevolent Association, asking if this tragedy will bring broader changes for citizens police academies across the state. So far, no one has said that it will.